Am I the only one who still plays CDs?

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Do you listen to music CDs?

Yes, I listen to music CDs.
28
61%
No, I listen to music on my phone or on internet radio.
12
26%
Meh, I prefer vinyl the most.
6
13%
 
Total votes: 46

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ugly
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Re: Am I the only one who still plays CDs?

Post by ugly »

otacon14112 wrote: Sat Apr 07, 2018 1:19 am I don't really like streaming, either. The only reason I did was two jobs ago, when you weren't allowed to play with your phone on the floor. Streaming was tolerated. I'm not really concerned about newer vehicles not having CD players anymore, because I'll just install my aftermarket system anyway.

What was your vinyl collection?
Maybe I worded my previous post poorly. I don't have any vinyl. What I meant was that I don't want to re-purchase albums on vinyl that I already have on CD.
xenopeek wrote: Sat Apr 07, 2018 7:18 am I do listen to one album at a time, from first to last track, just like CDs.
I like that too. I rarely listen to a single track. There's still some magic to listening to an entire album. And often it happens that when you revisit an entire album you find that a track that you didn't think much of on previous listens ends up becoming one of your favourites.

It's one of the reasons I don't really care for streaming, or curated music services. I would never throw on some streaming service and play a particular genre and just listen.

Although, to be fair, in terms of discoverability, I am finding that sites like YouTube are pretty good for discovering new artists based on their recommendations.
BigEasy wrote: Sat Apr 07, 2018 11:33 am
Schultz wrote: Sat Apr 07, 2018 9:59 amIt's ironic that computers and the digital age has actually been worse for music IMO (I mean in both quality of sound and quality of bands/performers).
+100500
There is no sound quality, music quality nowdays. Whole music industry do nothing but something to fill single criteria: listen loud inside moving car.
I wouldn't say that's entirely fair. I agree that the loudness wars are an issue. And I would agree that most popular music is poor (but that is just a matter of taste and totally subjective). I'd never touch a radio anymore.

But the great thing about the digital age is how much music is out there. There are so many people making music. And digital tools enable more people to make music without huge production costs.

If you really look, there's actually a lot of really good stuff being made. Probably most of it is at the fringes. But if you look, it's out there.
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Re: Am I the only one who still plays CDs?

Post by xenopeek »

ugly wrote: Sat Apr 07, 2018 1:31 pmThere's still some magic to listening to an entire album. [...] It's one of the reasons I don't really care for streaming, or curated music services. I would never throw on some streaming service and play a particular genre and just listen.
Same for me. I'll select my own music thank you very much :)
ugly wrote: Sat Apr 07, 2018 1:31 pmAlthough, to be fair, in terms of discoverability, I am finding that sites like YouTube are pretty good for discovering new artists based on their recommendations
That could be whole new topic: how do you discover new music? Youtube doesn't really do it for me. I mostly go by websites that give me "people that bought this album also bought <list>" or "people that listen this artist also listen to <list>" and dig through it the lists. Besides that I keep an eye (ear?) on new releases in a select few places to find new artists.
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Re: Am I the only one who still plays CDs?

Post by absque fenestris »

I miss the old 78 rpm records in the choice - no vinyl - heavy shellac...

The sound: incredibly... and the record is played in so short time :mrgreen:
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Re: Am I the only one who still plays CDs?

Post by lsemmens »

all41 wrote: Sat Apr 07, 2018 12:32 pm Vinyl? Electronic de-static devices, special sprays and cloths, camel's hair tone-arm brushes, lead in grooves, Thorens, the latest V15, elliptical stylus', anti rumble suspension, recording the first play to 10" Teac 3340s, click and pop machines, companders, handling by the edges, letting the tone arm down gently between tracks, coming home finding the little ones with the bare records scattered around the floor. :x
Yep--those were the days. Nowdays I just click an icon. :mrgreen:
LOL......:D

Reel to reel was the go to medium way back when. Vinyl was pressed from masters made on R-R recorded at IIRC 15ips. Cassettes were usually 1 7/8ips with a corresponding loss of quality. I still have a pile of tapes and an old R-R deck that I picked up somewhere, have yet to try it. I started out on a Sony TC630 that I literally wore the heads out on. I then moved to an AKAI 150D. Would have loved something much better, but I wan not made of money back then........
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Re: Am I the only one who still plays CDs?

Post by ugly »

xenopeek wrote: Sat Apr 07, 2018 2:34 pm That could be whole new topic: how do you discover new music? Youtube doesn't really do it for me. I mostly go by websites that give me "people that bought this album also bought <list>" or "people that listen this artist also listen to <list>" and dig through it the lists. Besides that I keep an eye (ear?) on new releases in a select few places to find new artists.
I was actually kind of surprised how well YouTube has worked for me. A friend of mine swears by Google Play Music for recommendations, but I've never used it.

I've had some success with Gnoosic

And, if you know what genre you like, you could try Every Noise at Once
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Re: Am I the only one who still plays CDs?

Post by jimallyn »

otacon14112 wrote: Sat Apr 07, 2018 11:54 am I'm not familiar with open-reel. And now, having just googled it, the geek in me is intrigued. Apparently, according to stereo nerds in the search results, R2R owns vinyl in sound quality. One question, though: if the original source is vinyl, how would R2R sound better?
R2R doesn't sound better than the original source, but it does a good job of capturing the sound of vinyl, and doesn't degrade as fast as vinyl does. So, I would record to R2R on first play, then just listen to the tape. If I ever wore the tape out, I'd still have the once-played vinyl and could record it to R2R, or cassette, or now I suppose I would record it to the computer. I still have an R2R deck, and about a hundred albums on tape. Commercially recorded R2R tapes are (were) inferior to my own R2R recordings of vinyl, mostly because they didn't care much what it sounded like. They just wanted product to sell. The same is true for the most part of commercially recorded cassette tapes. They didn't care much what it sounded like, they just wanted to have something to sell. A typical home cassette deck was capable of making much better quality recordings than the typical commercially recorded cassette tape.

When CDs first came out, they sounded grainy to me, like somebody had broke the music up into small chunks and just gave you the chunks. Which is, in fact, exactly the situation. I used to own an electronics repair shop, and somebody brought in a R2R deck for repair. They didn't bring any tapes in with it, so I had to go through the boxes and dig out some of my R2R tapes to test it. (Vinyl recorded to R2R on first playing.) At that point, I was listening mostly to CDs, and when I played one of those tapes, I was struck by how smooth it sounded. Not the grainy, cut up into chunks sound of CDs. And my employees were also surprised how good it sounded. These days, everything has been digitized, and for the most part, we've all gotten used to that digital sound. I am even able to tolerate MP3s now, just because I hear them so much. A few decades ago, a tavern I used to hang out in got music piped in from satellite in some early digital format. I found that I got irritable after listening to it for a while. It took some time to figure out what it was that was bothering me, but I finally concluded it was the digitized music. It just didn't sound right, and it annoyed me. A half hour or so was all I could stand.

Some years ago (late 80s, early 90s, maybe), my brother and I were playing music at a party, and a friend brought his DAT (Digital Audio Tape) deck and a pair of microphones to record us. He also brought a pair of headphones, and several people listened through the headphones while we were being recorded. One woman commented that it sounded even better through the headphones than it sounded direct. Well, no, it didn't. It sounded like it had been picked up by a couple of microphones and ran through a few stages of audio amplification. Which is, of course, what most people are hearing when they listen to music: music that has been electronically processed/recorded/reproduced/whatever. It sounded "better" to her because electronically processed music was what she was used to hearing. But to me, it didn't sound right because I was used to the sound of my acoustic guitar straight to my ears with no electronics in between, and also listening to others playing unamplified.

I have about 600 cassette tapes, some commercially recorded, some live recordings, some dubs of vinyl. The live recordings and the vinyl dubs are invariably better quality than the commercially recorded cassettes. TDK used to be one of the largest manufacturers of cassette tapes. When CDs came out, and everybody was raving about how good they sounded, TDK used to record CDs to their best quality cassette tapes and take them to the music/audio equipment shows where all the "golden ears" could be found. They would simultaneously play the CD and the cassette copy of the CD, and people could listen on headphones and switch back and forth between the CD and the cassette copy. Even in a room full of "golden ears" there were very few people who could tell which was which. I guess one of the advantages of CDs is its harder to screw them up and produce recordings of considerably less quality than the best possible recording.
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Re: Am I the only one who still plays CDs?

Post by xenopeek »

ugly wrote: Sun Apr 08, 2018 12:30 amI've had some success with Gnoosic

And, if you know what genre you like, you could try Every Noise at Once
Gnoosic was interesting. Perhaps its due to the 3 artists I picked (I tried a couple of times) from my favorites but the suggestions it came with just confirmed I like my own taste in music better. Some artists with debut albums in 2017/2018 were not on Gnoosic so it may work better for a bit older music. But interesting.

With Every Noise at Once I didn't know what to do with it. Too many, just too many :)
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Re: Am I the only one who still plays CDs?

Post by lsemmens »

TDK used to be one of the largest manufacturers of cassette tapes.
Those were the days, there were tapes and then there were tapes Cant recall the model now, but some were designed using ChroMo and they did not seem to produce as much hiss as other cassettes on some machines. My "goto" tape back then was Maxell ChroMo because they were easier to find than the TDK equivalent back then. If I wanted a high quality recording aside from vinyl, I'd record on the R-R at 7 1/2ips because that was the fastest my R-R would go.
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Re: Am I the only one who still plays CDs?

Post by BigEasy »

otacon14112 wrote: Sat Apr 07, 2018 11:54 amThis is true. If LPs were smaller, I'd prefer those, because you're right. Sound is, by nature, analog, and any quantization of analog is always lossy. Unfortunately, they're difficult to play in the car :lol:
Furtunately! Furtunately there is no reason to listen LP in car. In car only "BUM!-BUM!, BAM!-BAM!". LP is for other environment. Yes, "BUM!-BUM!, BAM!-BAM!" can be recorded on LP too. But inside appropriate environment those "BUM!-BUM!, BAM!-BAM!" will better to listen.
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Re: Am I the only one who still plays CDs?

Post by absque fenestris »

Faust

Re: Am I the only one who still plays CDs?

Post by Faust »

If I wasn't on the move so much I'd be listening to my vinyl and CD collection on old but high-quality hifi .
MP3 is fine for convenience , but much better is ripping to FLAC , and playing using a DAC dongle .
Some of those things give STUNNING quality , from a tiny package .
jimallyn wrote: Sat Apr 07, 2018 3:32 am ......... It's a Beautiful Day, Big Brother and the Holding Company: Cheap Thrills, and a few more.
That brought back some good memories ! ..... " White Bird "
There is some rare live stuff from It's a Beautiful Day ; I think " Last days of the Filmore " is what I searched on Youtube

And yes , those TDK SA tapes were mighty fine !
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Re: Am I the only one who still plays CDs?

Post by absque fenestris »

@ Faust:

Also the template for your avatar is a very special record: completely transparent in transparent cover...
Faust

Re: Am I the only one who still plays CDs?

Post by Faust »

absque fenestris wrote: Sun Apr 08, 2018 9:09 am @ Faust:
Also the template for your avatar is a very special record: completely transparent in transparent cover...
Ha !
yes indeed , well spotted ..... I liked the idea as a username on a techie forum .
I still have that original copy ( I think it was only the first 5000 ) and the sound quality was BAD , even from first playing ,
almost as bad as those giveaway flexi-discs !
So I bought another copy on black vinyl a few years later , and that one still sounds fantastic .

Sorry folks ..... I've gone WAY off topic :)
Last edited by Faust on Sun Apr 08, 2018 11:18 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Am I the only one who still plays CDs?

Post by JerryF »

catweazel wrote: Sat Apr 07, 2018 1:06 am What's a CD?
Too funny!
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Re: Am I the only one who still plays CDs?

Post by BigEasy »

CD is some strange storage that no modern distros can fit.
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Re: Am I the only one who still plays CDs?

Post by Portreve »

Do I listen to CDs? and Do I buy CDs? are two very different questions which I think this thread and the poll at the top are conflating.

I buy CDs to this day, but I don't generally listen to them.

Most of the time I'm not somewhere that I can play a CD. Even when I'm at home where I could play a CD if I wanted to, I already have all my music ripped (so why bother) and most of the time I don't listen to anything at all, generally preferring the non-distracting environment of silence. I don't do well trying to focus on things and having to listen to music in the background.
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Re: Am I the only one who still plays CDs?

Post by otacon14112 »

Schultz wrote: Sat Apr 07, 2018 12:49 pm That made me think of this. Note from 1:15 - 1:55. Ha ha!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzAlenbshcg
That's hilarous! :lol:
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Re: Am I the only one who still plays CDs?

Post by SwanRider »

I still buy and listen to them and use my cd drive on my laptop to do as well as listening to them in the car. There is nothing nicer than having something in your hand and reading the sleeve notes. What is more it saves my very precious LPs from being damaged. It does amuse me that some are now buy the same albums I got for for £3:00 for £15 or more. I also buy blu-rays and DVDs rather than stream as well oh yes we still have VHS recorder that still works
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Re: Am I the only one who still plays CDs?

Post by catweazel »

JerryF wrote: Sun Apr 08, 2018 9:36 am
catweazel wrote: Sat Apr 07, 2018 1:06 am What's a CD?
Too funny!
Phrases like that always remind me of an old fishing tale from when ah were a lad. There was a sign on the river that said "Sometimes there fish here". Walk a bit further down-river and a sign said, "No fish here!" A bit further down a sign said, "Fish? What's fish?"
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Optical discs.

Post by TL7 »

I enjoy optical discs in general.
They have so many advantages barely nobody knows about.

Error scanning (predictable failures), cheap price units, waterproofness, EMP-proofness, excellent offline filesharing, still supported everywhere (DVD much more widely than BD) and ideal for redundant backups, and also eXcellent longevity.
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